The increasing use of crane handled large size unitized cargo crates up to 3m .times. 3m .times. 12m, and potentially larger, to package and ship complete assemblies of ready cut materials to protect them against pilfering, damage and losses, has presented many stowage problems that are profitably resolved by this invention, preparing and using an entire cargo space, and by increasing the port speed in the loading and unloading.
The present invention is an improvement in the cargo handling syndrome and involves not only the preparation for particular types of cargo but eliminates waste of cargo shoring. It also improves the ease and rapidity of loading and unloading cargo ships as well as the safety of the cargo and personnel handling or in charge of cargo, both in port and in transit. These and the minimization of possible damage to the ship are basic considerations of the invention. Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the description which follows.
More particularly, the safety of the ship, its personnel and cargo is greatly improved by a loading technique and arrangement in which the cargo, disposed in large crates, is stowed and supported on readily assembled tiers of a cargo rack which are progressively assembled and dismantled, without tools, during the loading and unloading process, by labor freed of any required contact with the crated articles that make up the cargo. Labor quickly handles the rack elements, which are within labor regulation weight limitations, while and during the time that the deck officers handle the cargo units to place them on or remove then from the rack, thereby substantially reducing the expenses of cargo handling operations as a part of the operating costs of a general cargo carrier.
The rack parts engage and disengage freely in a self guiding and aligning relation with relative vertical movement accomplished either by hand or crane, or both, They are loosely fit but snugly held in assembled relationship soleby by gravity and cargo weight distribution to provide for the rapid crane handling of cargo crates that may be tiered both horizontally and vertically in defined cubicles. Thus the cargo crates are weight supported and secured and independently of one another upon readily assembled preadjusted and interchangeable rack elements that provide knockdown reusable stowage racks which are quickly set up progressively during cargo loading and are readily dismantled progressively as part of the cargo unloading procedure. When dismantled the rack parts can be easily handled in compact bundles for stowage on the ship between uses leaving the holds clear for a different cargo on a return trip, or trips to other ports.
The preadjustable elements, when assembled and in use, serve as a firm part of the ship well within the seagoing requirements and maritime regulation for cargo ships relating particularly to loading, draft, stability and metacenter considerations.
More particularly with regard to the older cargo ships which have slow or limited speeds, the speed of loading and unloading in port, generally referred to as "port speed," in whatever order they occur, is highly desirable to increase the ships "productivity" competitively. The invention minimizes the desire for competitively increasing cargo ship running speeds which directly involves increased fuel consumption. The reciprocal saving in fuel and port speed is more desirable. It improves profits that are directly related to cargo revenue, and the need for extensive training of miscelllaeous labor in any port is greatly reduced. Pilfering and damage to cargo is minimized to that immediately detectable by viewable damage to a crate.